In supermarkets and other stores, the introduction of modern self-service checkouts (or self-checkouts) has enabled customers to perform the checkout procedure themselves, with little or no intervention from store personnel. This checkout procedure involves the weighing of grocery items, the addition of the prices of all the goods being bought, and the payment to the store of the total charge due. By enabling customers to carry out this procedure themselves, customers are able to check out of the store more quickly, queues or lines are reduced in length, and people spend less time waiting in line to be served. Furthermore, the store will require fewer personnel in checkout roles, and so may deploy them elsewhere in the store to assist customers, or alternatively may be able to reduce the total workforce and thereby save on payroll costs. Such a saving may be passed on to customers as lower priced goods, or may enable the store's profits to be increased.
However, as a greater number of customers decide to use self-checkouts to buy a large number of items, self-checkout users will find themselves waiting in line for longer periods of time. This may lead to frustration amongst the customers, a decrease in customer satisfaction, less frequent use of the self-checkout facilities, and a lower return on investment for the store. It is important that customers' confidence in self-checkout facilities should not be harmed by long lines.
Another disadvantage associated with self-checkouts is the greater potential for shoplifting. Since customers are trusted with checking out their goods for themselves, with little or no supervision from store personnel, incidents of theft from the store may become more prevalent. Furthermore, some customers may, quite innocently, make a mistake in their use of the self-checkout facility and consequently not pay fully for their goods.
Accordingly, it is a general object of the present invention to overcome or at least mitigate at least some of the problems, shortcomings and disadvantages associated with self-checkouts as identified above.